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Effects of Eimeria spp. control of plateau pika on the plant community characteristics of alpine grassland
- YAO Bao-Hui ,
- WANG Rong ,
- TAN Zhao-Xian ,
- ZHANG Yan ,
- WANG Yi-Hong ,
- WANG Su-Qin ,
- ZHOU Hua-Kun ,
- QU Jia-Peng
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- 1Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3College of Life Science, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810008, China
4Qinghai Province Key Laboratory of Animal Ecological Genomics, Xining 810008, China
Received date: 2024-05-21
Accepted date: 2024-12-10
Online published: 2024-12-27
Supported by
Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDA26020201);National Natural Science Foundation of China(32471603);Qinghai Provincial Key R&D and Transformation Program(2023-SF-120);Central Financial Funds for Forestry and Grassland Reform and Development in 2024(2024-TG16);Leading Talents of the Kunlun Talents in Qinghai Province
Abstract
Aims Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) is a dominant small herbivorous mammal on the Qingzang Plateau, which affects the grassland ecosystem function through feeding, digging and excreting. Eimeriaspp., as the main intestinal parasite of plateau pika, has relatively high species specificity and is a potential new model for population control of plateau pika. However, it is still unclear about the change of plant communities in alpine grassland after control of plateau pika by Eimeriaspp.
Methods In this study, the grassland after control of plateau pika by Eimeria spp. and the control grassland were selected, and the plant diversity and network stability of alpine grassland after different treatments were analyzed to explore the effects of control of plateau pika by Eimeriaspp. on the plant community structure of grassland.
Important findings After field placement of Eimeriaspp., the active burrow entrance of plateau pika decreased significantly. After Eimeriaspp. treatment, grassland total coverage, Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index and β diversity index increased significantly. The results of the mixed-effects model showed that Eimeriaspp. treatment had a greater impact on the Simpson index and Pielou evenness index. Increased inter-community correlations and average connectivity and stability in co-occurrence network analyses of plant communities after control of plateau pika by Eimeriaspp., and grassland keystone species changed from forbs to gramineae and cyperaceae. The results of this study provide new insights for biodiversity conservation, glires control, and ecosystem adaptive management of alpine grassland on the Qingzang Plateau.
Cite this article
YAO Bao-Hui , WANG Rong , TAN Zhao-Xian , ZHANG Yan , WANG Yi-Hong , WANG Su-Qin , ZHOU Hua-Kun , QU Jia-Peng . Effects of Eimeria spp. control of plateau pika on the plant community characteristics of alpine grassland[J]. Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, 2025 , 49(1) : 199 -210 . DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2024.0168
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